Members of the Black Caucus -- also including Reps. Bobby Rush, Danny Davis and Maxine Waters -- were joined by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and a number of law enforcement experts, academics and members of the public at the event.

"It’s poverty, it’s school closings, its a lack of good education opportunities, it’s a lack of jobs and opportunity to work, it’s the need for parenting, it’s need to rebuild the infrastructure and so all of these things become a part of the comprehensiveness of violence," Davis said, according to the Sun-Times.

Addressing the summit, Emanuel emphasized the city must continue to work to "make our streets safer so they [the city's children] have a normal childhood and it is not stolen from them by violence," CBS Chicago reports.

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A Chicago police officer picks through debris at the crime scene early Friday, Sept. 20, 2013, where a number of people, including a 3-year-old child, were shot Thursday night in a city park in Chicago. Thursday night's attack was the latest violence in a city that has struggled to stop such shootings by increasing police patrols. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)